Discover Effective Strategies for Finding Clients and Managing Freelance Projects

🔑 The speaker discussed the importance of having people refer you and shared insights on how to approach networking and seeking referrals.

💡 There are two main approaches to seeking referrals: open-ended referrals from people in your network and more focused referrals by finding mutual connections on LinkedIn or Facebook.

🌟 Providing a copy and paste email template to the person making the referral increases the likelihood of a successful connection.

👥 When reaching out to someone you admire, it's important to have a genuine reason for wanting to connect, either through a common interest or a specific business intent.

💼 Approach connection-building organically and focus on fostering and nurturing existing connections rather than seeking out new people for no obvious reason.

🤝 Having a clear onboarding flow process can be beneficial, but it's important to design it in a way that allows for personal relationship-building, rather than solely relying on automation.

🔑 The speaker asks about the process of onboarding clients, specifically in terms of long and short-form projects and retainer deals.

💼 There is a distinction made between sales and onboarding, with onboarding referring to the process after verbally agreeing to work together.

✅ The speaker shares a checklist template using Trello to manage the different stages of the sales process, from lead to opportunity.

📝 Text expander is a tool that allows you to save time by inserting pre-programmed text or prompts based on short codes.

💼 After sending the contract and gathering company details, the next phase is to draft the statement of work and schedule a call to discuss the project.

🛠️ During the onboarding process, the freelancer sends the documents for signature, adds the invoice to their financial tracking spreadsheet, and sends a welcome message to the client.

📝 The speaker discusses his process for onboarding clients, including adding them to his contact list, time tracker, and Google Drive. He separates the sales and onboarding processes from the deliverables and creates a project card in Trello.

💰 The speaker outlines the exit process for clients, which includes sending the final invoice, adding expenses to profit tracking, and requesting referrals. He also mentions a referral method he used to have with a company that monitored ad effectiveness.

🗒️ The speaker mentions a tool called Scribe AI, which records and analyzes how time is spent to help create standard operating procedures. He notes the importance of being cautious with the tool and mentions the possibility of writing a review on it.

🕒 Estimating the time required for each step of the process is crucial to being efficient in long-form writing.

💼 Dividing the work into manageable steps and scheduling specific time for each task helps in staying focused and avoiding time wastage.

⏱️ Using a time tracker tool can assist in keeping track of the time spent on different tasks and minimizing distractions.

Estimate time needed for assignments by tracking distractions and allocating time

Don't get overwhelmed by every little distraction, prioritize important tasks

Use a tracking app to monitor project progress and analyze time allocation